Monday, January 4, 2010

Cleanliness is Next to Luckiness

Feel free to surf over to their site which is filled with fantastic luck-lore

and fascinating info on the art of good fortune!

In a previous entry on Good Luck, I mentioned briefly the notion of one’s “sphere” and “energetic atmosphere” in relation to luck. I’d like to expand on these notions and talk about why the old saying “Cleanliness is next to Godliness” is pretty darn true. For our purposes you could re-translate it “Cleanliness is next to Luckiness” and not have it lose any the original meaning at all.

Some people would refer to the sphere as an “aura”, which is the field of energy that is produced by and surrounds your body (and truth be told is really is more egg-like than perfectly spherical – but that’s really here nor there). It acts as an import/export center for all manner of other influential forces around you – planetary, chthonic, holy, or just plain icky and negative.

You might call an energetic atmosphere one’s home, dwelling, or habitat. These are the places where you live. While you are physically incarnate you’re pretty much stuck living in your body, and your body needs a home-base to nest in when it’s not out hunting or gathering. It is within these two places that luck’s presence can be welcomed or impeded. So knowing how to keep the welcome mat out is very important for staying on a first name basis with good fortune.

Let’s start with your personal sphere. This is a pretty permanent fixture as long as you have your body, so it’s very important to have a good grasp on the basic feeding and maintenance for this companion. It’s sort of like a subtle version of your skin – it absorbs a great deal, is sensitive to stimulation, and is the first line of defense against infection. You don’t HAVE to clean it everyday, but you do have to clean it pretty often or else it gets dingy and stinky and no one will want to be anywhere near you!

When you’re clean and well put-together people naturally approve of you more easily, and it encourages positive and regular interaction. Your sphere is pretty much the same. If you keep it clean and strong, it will be very difficult for anything energetically or subtly unpleasant to affect you very significantly. When good things come your way, they are not met with all kinds of garbage and rusted out old junkers on the front lawn - but instead they’ll find the porch light on and a fresh apple-pie cooling tantalizingly on the window-sill. It invites those good things to sit and stay a spell. What that porch light also does is deter intruders, who much prefer to skulk around where there are deep shadows that they can hide within to do their nefarious deeds. Bad luck is totally wearing the gang colors of those would-be intruders.

So how does one’s sphere get dirty? Well, really anything can contribute to the sullying of your sphere. It can get dusty just from interacting with so many people during a normal workday. Some people that you come in contact with are like Pig Pen from Peanuts, they just get dirt all over everything just by passing through – and that includes your pristine sphere. If you get into a confrontation, or are nearby when one occurs, that angry and irritable vibration can taint your aura. People dealing with illness, sadness, frustrated by the traffic, and even those that have to keep up a manic-pace to get everything done by 5pm, can also kick some sand into your sphere-eyes.

These same factors are at play in the environments in which we spent time. The energetic atmosphere of places becomes impregnated with the qualities of the vibrations that are present within them. The longer an area is exposed to one type of vibration, the more that area reflects back that same vibration and can impose that vibration upon us. It’s all rather viral. Most people have had the experience of walking into a home where things just felt “heavy” or “thick”, only to find out that a great deal of fighting goes on, or that there has recently been a severe illness within the home. This leaves an impression on the place. Many “hauntings” are actually what has been termed residuals, meaning that there is no actual spirit present, but that the energy of a particularly strong event has etched itself so deeply into the place, that it gets re-played and experienced by those who come across it.

All of our interactions have the ability to contribute to the sullying of our personal energetic virtue, or that of the building that those interactions are occurring within. As the air-quality inside our sphere and within our larger atmosphere goes down, it makes it harder for the fresh breezes of good luck to hit our lungs, and it becomes easier for us to start being noticeably negatively effected by the negativity. Lack of spiritual cleanliness over the long-term results in imbalances in our lives, and can even cause physical illnesses.

As a Reiki Master and intuitive energetic healer I see this everyday, and along with performing healings and balancing sessions, part of my job is educating people on spiritual hygiene so they can truly recover from their malady, and not just rely on symptom management. As a conjurewoman and village witch, I see how spiritual cleansing plays a huge role in the amount of luck and good fortune that a person will experience. A big part of my job in that context is also educating people on spiritual cleansing so they can be pro-active about transforming their lives, and not have to rely on the seemingly “random” winds of fate.

Now that you know you’re likely a bit messy, how do you clean up the giant invisible egg that you’re living inside, and the actual roof under which that egg is residing? It’s not quite so straight-forward as taking a washcloth and scrubbing vigorously behind your ears, but it’s also not very different. Bathing is one of the easiest ways to spiritually cleanse yourself, and since you do that pretty often anyway (I hope), it will be very simple to integrate some methods of spiritual cleansing into your already established routine.

Salt is a powerful purifying agent. It also makes for a great exfoliating scrub! Mix some lemongrass essential oil into a jar of sea salt with some table or Epsom salts thrown in for good measure and you’ve got yourself a fantastic spiritually cleansing body scrub (that will also keep your skin feeling smooth and youthful). Add a handful of the same mixture to a tub full of hot water, and you’ve got a lovely spiritual cleansing bath. There are also lots of soaps available out there that have spiritual cleansing qualities if you prefer a good lather from a bar. Florida Water soap is one. And your local health food store just may have some all-natural handcrafted made with essential oils and herbs – if you have a wee bit of knowledge on the magical uses of herbs, it will be simple to pick a bar that has real cleansing OR real luck-drawing power. Voila! Your mundane shower has taken on new dimensions that will prime your sphere for fortune and - with a bit of luck - fame! (You can also find an excellent daily cleansing ritual in the Rituals section at The Church of Good Luck that you can easily integrate into your day at ANY time you feel you need it. No shower or bathtub required.) Keeping up this routine will strengthen your sphere and almost act like esoteric Teflon – with negative stuff just beading up and rolling right off of you.

This same idea is extended to one’s environment. Bad luck is like dust bunnies – it likes to accumulate in places that don’t often get tended. So turn your regular housekeeping into an act that invokes good luck and banishes the bad. Remember that salt & lemongrass mixture you made? Put some into that bucket of water before you mop, or dampen your dust rag with some of the mixture dissolved in water. Put that into a spritzer bottle and spray your upholstery, carpets, or curtains (you may want to patch test this just in case). Add some to the rinse cycle of your laundry. Many botanicas and candle shops, such as Lucky Mojo Curio Co, carry spiritual baths and floor washes for all kinds of different conditions. Pop on over to their online catalog and start washing all kinds of good luck and fortune into all the various areas of your life!

When you and the atmosphere around you are clean and full of light, it is so much easier for positivity and luck to find you and make your good acquaintance. Also, when you become accustomed to the light, you get much more sensitive to the dark – even a little shadow will catch your attention, and can quickly escort it firmly away before it can cause a ruckus in the disco of your life!

Luck, light, positivity - all different ways of speaking about the Divine. Since keeping clean allows more luck to come our way, it really is another way of staying just a bit closer to the Source of All Good Things. Cleanliness really IS next to Luckiness.

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About Me

Devi Spring has been practicing folk magic since 1997. With academic learning and practical experience in many different areas of world spiritual and folk magic traditions, she began offering divination and ritual work professionally to clients in 2008. She is the proprietress of Queen of Pentacles Conjure where she provides tarot readings, spiritual consultations, candle services, and a variety of custom crafted items such as mojo bags, bottle spells, and more.

She holds a Religious Studies, B.A. and is also a Usui Reiki Master-Teacher with an established healing and teaching practice in Toronto.

Devi has trained in many different forms of folk magic,and takes inspiration from traditions tied to her own heritage and those she has received initiation in. This has resulted in a unique and syncretic melange of hoodoo, Mexican folk religion, New Orleans conjure, universalist and folk expressions of Hinduism, Hermetic ceremonialism, and folk shamanic spirit-work paving her path.